Planes of Prophecy Beta - The State of Things!

Kander · 10-31-2017, 09:39 PM

Greetings Beta Testing Norrathians!

So we are off to a pretty good start here in the Planes of Prophecy Beta! Overland testing and quest testing has gone fantastically. Thank you very much to everyone who helped us out with this. The team wanted to make a post and give everyone some open and clear communication on what we are doing with beta and beyond!

First off, the rest of the beta will look something like this:

·The first week we tested Overland and Overland Quests!
·Week Two – Signature Line focus and testing with Heroics, Solos, Duos.
·Week Three – Heroic focus and testing. Raids and PQs will become available, with some raid content opening up to all!
·Week Four – Lots of bells and whistles being added. Look for more and more cool stuff!
·Week Five – Things will start to become polished and we’ll be focusing on squashing any gating or frustrating issues if they still exist.
·Week Six – This is the week before launch. We should have very few issues at this point and will be getting ready for launch! Still plenty of time to earn those beta rewards.

Things you will see being added and adjusted and/or tweaked/changed as we go according to feedback and necessity.

·Factions for Overland Quest Lines.
·Itemization – Always, and of course feedback changes.
·Spell and class changes – Balance is the focus this year, expect to see tweaks.
·Some Tradeskill content. Most of the TS content will be released after the Launch of Pop.
·Merchants and Service NPCs being distributed for menders/banks/etc.
·Dungeon missions and overland timed quests.

This and That.

Starting the expansion out, we want people to feel they are ready to take on the challenges ahead. Tishan’s Lockbox and the gear in it will remain in Plane of Magic at launch. This will make it easy for returning players, alts and even new players to have the gear they need to be successful in the Overland and ensure they can do the quest lines. Everything from the quests should be an upgrade to anything you get from the lockbox. Drops in the overland should be upgrades to the quest items and so on. Collection items should be upgrades to solo quest gear as well.

I know some of you have shown concern about repeatable quests and factions. We have metered these repeatable quests out, so that if you take advantage of what is there, there is a very limited number of times you should have to do them. We are also taking steps to preserve factions in the overland once they have been earned by setting a minimum amount that can be lost. This way, if you made it through a quest line, you will never be lower than, say, Kindly. And if you want to, you should be able to come back and earn the faction back to max. Max Ally with the three Plane of Magic factions, House Vahla, House Yrzu and Pride Pakiat, cannot be maintained simultaneously. Whatever faction you choose to ally with will result in the loss of faction with the other two.

We have done a 180 with Planes of Prophecy on the alt friendliness. There are no pre-reqs for getting in and getting all the content, except being level 100. No languages, no quest pre-reqs from previous expansions. We are also looking at ways to make it so once you do certain content, your alts will have access to it. Everyone is still going to need to do some content to level up, though. Solo and non-Event Heroic Tier 1 Heroic zones will require you to be 105 to start having access to them, while Duo, Event Heroic, and Tier 2 Heroic zones will require level 110 to enter. We have changed the focus on leveling; in order to keep the XP flowing, quests and dungeons are where it is at. Large amounts of XP will be awarded through quests and completing dungeons within the Planes of Prophecy expansion. This will be the best and fastest way to level up.

Spells and class changes are still coming, and there will indeed be some tweaks here and there. We are currently looking at utility and finding some ways to make these classes more useful and desirable. As stated previously, we looked at doing some spell consolidation, and once we started it, it immediately become evident to us it was a bad idea and that consolidating would fundamentally change the way EQII is played. That said, class balance will remain our focus even after the expansion launch this year.

I think I covered most questions I have been seeing, and hope that we have helped alleviate many of your concerns! See you on the beta server!

And for completion’s sake, here is our list of what is going into Planes of Prophecy!

-New Heroic Dungeons
-New Heroic Event Dungeons
-New Solo Dungeons
-New Duo Dungeons
-New Large Overland
-New Raid Dungeons: Using key flagging to unlock
-Alt-Friendly Keyring system: Unlock a new heroic zone or raid zone on your main? Your alt has it now too!
-New Hub zone “Coliseum of Valor” for accessing Dungeons/Raids/Public Quests
-Lots of new quests and factions
-New Timed Key Quests
-New Collection Quests
-New Expert collection quests for overland, solo and heroics.
-New Signature questline: Continuation of the story from the last few expansions and beyond!
-New weapon type: Crossbows ranged weapon usable by all
-New “Soulbound” Weapons : These weapons can level up to become even more powerful!
-Two handed Crossbows for those who desire them.
-Adventure Level Cap Raised to 110
-All 4 Ascension Classes Level Cap Increased to 15
-Tradeskill Level Cap raised to 110
-New Adornments for Crafters to Make
-New Tinkering Recipes
-Guild Level Cap increased
-Mercenary Level Cap increased
-More gear slots for your Mercenary
-Multiple New Public Quests
-Lots of New Achievements
-Lots of New Items to chase

10-31-2017, 09:58 PM

/Kander

Sorry, had to.

10-31-2017, 10:21 PM

Please Please make Solo Zones SOLO zones... for those of us who do not have Raid or even Heroic Gear. We want to play too... but do not want to have to be Uber to do it.

Armageddoux · 10-31-2017, 10:22 PM

wow !

We (and You) have a huge lot of work to do for these next weeks Smile

Bon, ben allez hop : au boulot BigGrin

10-31-2017, 11:17 PM

It is possible for there to be some additional information on class balance direction? Even a list of each class and their expected roles or dps tiers would be a nice opening of the kimono.

Mermut · 10-31-2017, 11:53 PM

Will there be published list of the spell/class changes? It is far easier to test such things when we know what we're looking for/at

Gninja · 11-01-2017, 01:25 AM

We are still in the middle of balancing all the zone difficulties. The solo zones are NOT being balanced to raid gear. They will be balanced to having the quest gear from the overland.

Mermut · 11-01-2017, 01:29 AM

I"m running through them on a coercer with just the gear she's earned in beta.. so the freebie gear that will be there on live, gear from the faction quests and overland mobs.
She can handle the trash in the solo zones w/o a merc just fine, but, unfortunately, they are impossible for her w/o a healer merc.
That being said, they have all be doable w/o issue with the merc up in 'solo' gear.

11-01-2017, 02:57 AM

Since the tradeskill timeline won't be available until after the launch of the expansion, will we be able to buy recipies to be able to start leveling the crafters?

11-01-2017, 04:35 AM

Agree with this, I'm happy with beta and what it promises for the new expac, but clarification on class balance changes, which gives general intent and some specifics (i suppose the 2 or 3 abilities of each class to be most adjusted positivly and negativly?) is needed.

Materfarmer · 11-01-2017, 01:09 PM

Thanks for the heads up Devs. Can't wait to see the polish on Beta as we move to Live !

11-01-2017, 01:51 PM

Will there be additional ascension masters in PoP? Just wondering if we will have to go back to OF each time we want to level. Also, will there be a reward for 15/15/15/15?

11-01-2017, 02:59 PM

You can make some of the solos easy but for the love of Norath there is 8 of them and only 3 Duos. We do not need that much content that will become outgeared in a month.

11-01-2017, 04:20 PM

There's individual achievements again as well as an overall achievement... so I would guess they'd be the same or similar in regards to ears/charm

Xianthia · 11-01-2017, 07:46 PM

I'm having a different experience.

Beta buffed illy is having a really bad time to get the sig quest done. The illy copied from live (expert/heroic geared) is having a completely and better experience. At this stage I doubt being able to complete the sig questline on the beta buffed illy.

More time to go before Beta finishes, and things change many times, but as it stands at this moment she will not be successful on the sig quest.

Two different experiences on the same class. Just wanted to chime in on this Smile

Darwiin · 11-02-2017, 12:14 AM

Nice information, but any words on other Caps that might change beside Adventure level, Tradeskill level and Ascension level?
Is Crit Bonus Cap going up?
Is Deity Gain Cap still going to be still set to 10 (I am loosing a lot of Deity Points each quest turn in)
Is Fever Cap being raised?
Just wonder if you can clue us into planned game changes?

Shmogre · 11-02-2017, 12:32 AM

I've found it helps to think of it more as "I'm getting 10 deity points per quest". It's still a lot more than we got before, and it's nice to be able to see those little pie slices actually move during a regular play session.

(Not that I would turn down an increase to the ten point limit, mind you. Smile

)

Observing · 11-02-2017, 01:13 AM

With the lockbox remaining in live, what is the purpose of handcrafted gear?
It is approximately 1% better than the lockbox gear but cannot be reforged; at best a wash and usually a bad tradeoff.

The lockbox gear requires zero effort to acquire, while handcrafted gear requires about 18 hours of writ grinding (as of tradeskill xp right now on beta) to get all recipes plus time to harvest new materials. And that is 18 hours for plate/chain armor, another 18 for leather/cloth, another 18 for jewelry, and another 18 for weapons.

Handcrafted gear will be obsolete zero hours into POP.

In contrast, at the beginning of KA, handcrafted was very good for starting under-geared players and the KA crafting line took about 2 hours total to complete on one character and receive recipes for all of your alt crafters.

11-03-2017, 12:35 AM

Kander,

With regard to the two above quotes.

1) In DoF we had the ability to gain max faction with all three houses simultaneously if we managed our faction correctly before the quest The Courts of Maj'Dul: Of Fate and Destiny was completed. Is there any plan to add a similar quest maybe even after the expansion launches? I'd be pretty keen for a complex quest that allows it.

2) With regards to consolidation. Could you elaborate more on the decisions and design process here? I would argue that ascension classes have changed how EQ2 is played more than consolidation of our current class spells would. This was a big item for the community and there was very little communication of it so some more detail would be great for us to understand exactly what went on here and why.

Cheers,

11-03-2017, 10:54 PM

11-04-2017, 04:37 PM

I can't believe I am saying this, and I might be the only one thinking it. But I loved the faction setup in The Hole with the three factions. So there is no chance it could be like that? I complained about it at first, but when I decided to grind it - it was kind of fun.

Shmogre · 11-04-2017, 06:49 PM

Amending my statement: Once vitality runs out, it's no longer a guaranteed 10 points...sometimes I only get 8 or 9 points per turn-in.

Observing · 11-05-2017, 03:55 PM

So I have completed an entire faction (50k) and the first two signature quests.
And I cannot proceed because I just hit level 104, leaving another 90 (yes, ninety) faction repeatable quests before I hit level 105 and can enter the Plane of Innovation zones.

Also, what is the point of shortcutting the quest line by unlocking all instances on all your alts if the only way to meet the level entrance requirement is to do the quest line ???

Shmogre · 11-05-2017, 04:01 PM

Two things will help: Continue doing the other two faction lines and let your vitality recharge a bit (or use an experience potion if you have some).

(If it helps, I did the factions before starting the sig line and I dinged 110 before I finished all three. There are a fair number of quests there to help with leveling, it's actually a really nice change from prior expansions...kudos to the devs for that.)

10-31-2017, 10:22 PM	#4
Armageddoux Member Join Date: Jan 1970 Posts: 0	wow ! We (and You) have a huge lot of work to do for these next weeks Bon, ben allez hop : au boulot

11-01-2017, 01:25 AM	#7
Gninja Developer Join Date: Jan 1970 Posts: 0	Zannya said: ↑ “Please Please make Solo Zones SOLO zones... for those of us who do not have Raid or even Heroic Gear. We want to play too... but do not want to have to be Uber to do it.” We are still in the middle of balancing all the zone difficulties. The solo zones are NOT being balanced to raid gear. They will be balanced to having the quest gear from the overland.

11-01-2017, 01:29 AM	#8
Mermut Well-Known Member Join Date: Jan 1970 Posts: 0	Zannya said: ↑ “Please Please make Solo Zones SOLO zones... for those of us who do not have Raid or even Heroic Gear. We want to play too... but do not want to have to be Uber to do it.” I"m running through them on a coercer with just the gear she's earned in beta.. so the freebie gear that will be there on live, gear from the faction quests and overland mobs. She can handle the trash in the solo zones w/o a merc just fine, but, unfortunately, they are impossible for her w/o a healer merc. That being said, they have all be doable w/o issue with the merc up in 'solo' gear.

11-01-2017, 04:35 AM	#10
Wimble Member Posts: n/a	Mermut said: ↑ “Will there be published list of the spell/class changes? It is far easier to test such things when we know what we're looking for/at” Agree with this, I'm happy with beta and what it promises for the new expac, but clarification on class balance changes, which gives general intent and some specifics (i suppose the 2 or 3 abilities of each class to be most adjusted positivly and negativly?) is needed.

11-01-2017, 02:59 PM	#13
bondii New Member Posts: n/a	Zannya said: ↑ “Please Please make Solo Zones SOLO zones... for those of us who do not have Raid or even Heroic Gear. We want to play too... but do not want to have to be Uber to do it.” You can make some of the solos easy but for the love of Norath there is 8 of them and only 3 Duos. We do not need that much content that will become outgeared in a month.

10-31-2017, 09:39 PM	#1
Kander Developer Join Date: Jan 1970 Posts: 0	Greetings Beta Testing Norrathians! So we are off to a pretty good start here in the Planes of Prophecy Beta! Overland testing and quest testing has gone fantastically. Thank you very much to everyone who helped us out with this. The team wanted to make a post and give everyone some open and clear communication on what we are doing with beta and beyond! First off, the rest of the beta will look something like this: ·The first week we tested Overland and Overland Quests! ·Week Two – Signature Line focus and testing with Heroics, Solos, Duos. ·Week Three – Heroic focus and testing. Raids and PQs will become available, with some raid content opening up to all! ·Week Four – Lots of bells and whistles being added. Look for more and more cool stuff! ·Week Five – Things will start to become polished and we’ll be focusing on squashing any gating or frustrating issues if they still exist. ·Week Six – This is the week before launch. We should have very few issues at this point and will be getting ready for launch! Still plenty of time to earn those beta rewards. Things you will see being added and adjusted and/or tweaked/changed as we go according to feedback and necessity. ·Factions for Overland Quest Lines. ·Itemization – Always, and of course feedback changes. ·Spell and class changes – Balance is the focus this year, expect to see tweaks. ·Some Tradeskill content. Most of the TS content will be released after the Launch of Pop. ·Merchants and Service NPCs being distributed for menders/banks/etc. ·Dungeon missions and overland timed quests. This and That. Starting the expansion out, we want people to feel they are ready to take on the challenges ahead. Tishan’s Lockbox and the gear in it will remain in Plane of Magic at launch. This will make it easy for returning players, alts and even new players to have the gear they need to be successful in the Overland and ensure they can do the quest lines. Everything from the quests should be an upgrade to anything you get from the lockbox. Drops in the overland should be upgrades to the quest items and so on. Collection items should be upgrades to solo quest gear as well. I know some of you have shown concern about repeatable quests and factions. We have metered these repeatable quests out, so that if you take advantage of what is there, there is a very limited number of times you should have to do them. We are also taking steps to preserve factions in the overland once they have been earned by setting a minimum amount that can be lost. This way, if you made it through a quest line, you will never be lower than, say, Kindly. And if you want to, you should be able to come back and earn the faction back to max. Max Ally with the three Plane of Magic factions, House Vahla, House Yrzu and Pride Pakiat, cannot be maintained simultaneously. Whatever faction you choose to ally with will result in the loss of faction with the other two. We have done a 180 with Planes of Prophecy on the alt friendliness. There are no pre-reqs for getting in and getting all the content, except being level 100. No languages, no quest pre-reqs from previous expansions. We are also looking at ways to make it so once you do certain content, your alts will have access to it. Everyone is still going to need to do some content to level up, though. Solo and non-Event Heroic Tier 1 Heroic zones will require you to be 105 to start having access to them, while Duo, Event Heroic, and Tier 2 Heroic zones will require level 110 to enter. We have changed the focus on leveling; in order to keep the XP flowing, quests and dungeons are where it is at. Large amounts of XP will be awarded through quests and completing dungeons within the Planes of Prophecy expansion. This will be the best and fastest way to level up. Spells and class changes are still coming, and there will indeed be some tweaks here and there. We are currently looking at utility and finding some ways to make these classes more useful and desirable. As stated previously, we looked at doing some spell consolidation, and once we started it, it immediately become evident to us it was a bad idea and that consolidating would fundamentally change the way EQII is played. That said, class balance will remain our focus even after the expansion launch this year. I think I covered most questions I have been seeing, and hope that we have helped alleviate many of your concerns! See you on the beta server! And for completion’s sake, here is our list of what is going into Planes of Prophecy! -New Heroic Dungeons -New Heroic Event Dungeons -New Solo Dungeons -New Duo Dungeons -New Large Overland -New Raid Dungeons: Using key flagging to unlock -Alt-Friendly Keyring system: Unlock a new heroic zone or raid zone on your main? Your alt has it now too! -New Hub zone “Coliseum of Valor” for accessing Dungeons/Raids/Public Quests -Lots of new quests and factions -New Timed Key Quests -New Collection Quests -New Expert collection quests for overland, solo and heroics. -New Signature questline: Continuation of the story from the last few expansions and beyond! -New weapon type: Crossbows ranged weapon usable by all -New “Soulbound” Weapons : These weapons can level up to become even more powerful! -Two handed Crossbows for those who desire them. -Adventure Level Cap Raised to 110 -All 4 Ascension Classes Level Cap Increased to 15 -Tradeskill Level Cap raised to 110 -New Adornments for Crafters to Make -New Tinkering Recipes -Guild Level Cap increased -Mercenary Level Cap increased -More gear slots for your Mercenary -Multiple New Public Quests -Lots of New Achievements -Lots of New Items to chase

10-31-2017, 09:58 PM	#2
Wimble Member Posts: n/a	/Kander Sorry, had to.

10-31-2017, 10:21 PM	#3
Zannya New Member Posts: n/a	Please Please make Solo Zones SOLO zones... for those of us who do not have Raid or even Heroic Gear. We want to play too... but do not want to have to be Uber to do it.

10-31-2017, 11:17 PM	#5
Clintsat Member Posts: n/a	It is possible for there to be some additional information on class balance direction? Even a list of each class and their expected roles or dps tiers would be a nice opening of the kimono.

10-31-2017, 11:53 PM	#6
Mermut Well-Known Member Join Date: Jan 1970 Posts: 0	Will there be published list of the spell/class changes? It is far easier to test such things when we know what we're looking for/at

11-01-2017, 02:57 AM	#9
EmJay New Member Posts: n/a	Since the tradeskill timeline won't be available until after the launch of the expansion, will we be able to buy recipies to be able to start leveling the crafters?

11-01-2017, 01:09 PM	#11
Materfarmer New Member Join Date: Jan 1970 Posts: 0	Thanks for the heads up Devs. Can't wait to see the polish on Beta as we move to Live !

11-01-2017, 01:51 PM	#12
Mandoblast New Member Posts: n/a	Will there be additional ascension masters in PoP? Just wondering if we will have to go back to OF each time we want to level. Also, will there be a reward for 15/15/15/15?

11-01-2017, 04:20 PM	#14
Scrappyz Member Posts: n/a	Mandoblast said: ↑ “Also, will there be a reward for 15/15/15/15?” There's individual achievements again as well as an overall achievement... so I would guess they'd be the same or similar in regards to ears/charm

11-01-2017, 07:46 PM	#15
Xianthia Active Member Join Date: Jan 1970 Posts: 0	Mermut said: ↑ “I"m running through them on a coercer with just the gear she's earned in beta.. so the freebie gear that will be there on live, gear from the faction quests and overland mobs. She can handle the trash in the solo zones w/o a merc just fine, but, unfortunately, they are impossible for her w/o a healer merc. That being said, they have all be doable w/o issue with the merc up in 'solo' gear.” I'm having a different experience. Beta buffed illy is having a really bad time to get the sig quest done. The illy copied from live (expert/heroic geared) is having a completely and better experience. At this stage I doubt being able to complete the sig questline on the beta buffed illy. More time to go before Beta finishes, and things change many times, but as it stands at this moment she will not be successful on the sig quest. Two different experiences on the same class. Just wanted to chime in on this

11-02-2017, 12:14 AM	#16
Darwiin Member Join Date: Jan 1970 Posts: 0	Nice information, but any words on other Caps that might change beside Adventure level, Tradeskill level and Ascension level? Is Crit Bonus Cap going up? Is Deity Gain Cap still going to be still set to 10 (I am loosing a lot of Deity Points each quest turn in) Is Fever Cap being raised? Just wonder if you can clue us into planned game changes?

11-02-2017, 12:32 AM	#17
Shmogre Active Member Join Date: Jan 1970 Posts: 0	Darwiin said: ↑ “Is Deity Gain Cap still going to be still set to 10 (I am loosing a lot of Deity Points each quest turn in)” I've found it helps to think of it more as "I'm getting 10 deity points per quest". It's still a lot more than we got before, and it's nice to be able to see those little pie slices actually move during a regular play session. (Not that I would turn down an increase to the ten point limit, mind you. )

11-02-2017, 01:13 AM	#18
Observing New Member Join Date: Jan 1970 Posts: 0	With the lockbox remaining in live, what is the purpose of handcrafted gear? It is approximately 1% better than the lockbox gear but cannot be reforged; at best a wash and usually a bad tradeoff. The lockbox gear requires zero effort to acquire, while handcrafted gear requires about 18 hours of writ grinding (as of tradeskill xp right now on beta) to get all recipes plus time to harvest new materials. And that is 18 hours for plate/chain armor, another 18 for leather/cloth, another 18 for jewelry, and another 18 for weapons. Handcrafted gear will be obsolete zero hours into POP. In contrast, at the beginning of KA, handcrafted was very good for starting under-geared players and the KA crafting line took about 2 hours total to complete on one character and receive recipes for all of your alt crafters.

11-03-2017, 12:35 AM	#19
Ellimist Active Member Posts: n/a	Kander said: ↑ “Max Ally with the three Plane of Magic factions, House Vahla, House Yrzu and Pride Pakiat, cannot be maintained simultaneously. Whatever faction you choose to ally with will result in the loss of faction with the other two. As stated previously, we looked at doing some spell consolidation, and once we started it, it immediately become evident to us it was a bad idea and that consolidating would fundamentally change the way EQII is played. ” Kander, With regard to the two above quotes. 1) In DoF we had the ability to gain max faction with all three houses simultaneously if we managed our faction correctly before the quest The Courts of Maj'Dul: Of Fate and Destiny was completed. Is there any plan to add a similar quest maybe even after the expansion launches? I'd be pretty keen for a complex quest that allows it. 2) With regards to consolidation. Could you elaborate more on the decisions and design process here? I would argue that ascension classes have changed how EQ2 is played more than consolidation of our current class spells would. This was a big item for the community and there was very little communication of it so some more detail would be great for us to understand exactly what went on here and why. Cheers,

11-04-2017, 04:37 PM	#21
Conifur Active Member Posts: n/a	Kander said: ↑ “Max Ally with the three Plane of Magic factions, House Vahla, House Yrzu and Pride Pakiat, cannot be maintained simultaneously. Whatever faction you choose to ally with will result in the loss of faction with the other two.” I can't believe I am saying this, and I might be the only one thinking it. But I loved the faction setup in The Hole with the three factions. So there is no chance it could be like that? I complained about it at first, but when I decided to grind it - it was kind of fun.

11-04-2017, 06:49 PM	#22
Shmogre Active Member Join Date: Jan 1970 Posts: 0	Shmogre said: ↑ “I've found it helps to think of it more as "I'm getting 10 deity points per quest".” Amending my statement: Once vitality runs out, it's no longer a guaranteed 10 points...sometimes I only get 8 or 9 points per turn-in.

11-05-2017, 03:55 PM	#23
Observing New Member Join Date: Jan 1970 Posts: 0	So I have completed an entire faction (50k) and the first two signature quests. And I cannot proceed because I just hit level 104, leaving another 90 (yes, ninety) faction repeatable quests before I hit level 105 and can enter the Plane of Innovation zones. Also, what is the point of shortcutting the quest line by unlocking all instances on all your alts if the only way to meet the level entrance requirement is to do the quest line ???

11-05-2017, 04:01 PM	#24
Shmogre Active Member Join Date: Jan 1970 Posts: 0	Observing said: ↑ “So I have completed an entire faction (50k) and the first two signature quests. And I cannot proceed because I just hit level 104, leaving another 90 (yes, ninety) faction repeatable quests before I hit level 105 and can enter the Plane of Innovation zones.” Two things will help: Continue doing the other two faction lines and let your vitality recharge a bit (or use an experience potion if you have some). (If it helps, I did the factions before starting the sig line and I dinged 110 before I finished all three. There are a fair number of quests there to help with leveling, it's actually a really nice change from prior expansions...kudos to the devs for that.)